b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4

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Life cycle assessment of biomass chains: Wood pellet from

short rotation coppice using data measured on a real plant

Francesco Fantozzi, Cinzia Buratti*

University of Perugia e Biomass Research Centre, Via Duranti e 06125 Perugia, Italy

article info abstract

Article history: This paper presents a LCA study about household heat from Short Rotation Coppice wood
Received 12 June 2009 pellets combustion. The overall process, from field growth to ash disposal, was considered;
Received in revised form environmental analysis was carried out using a LCA software programme (Simapro 7.0) and
18 March 2010 adopting the EcoIndicator 99 model for the evaluation of the global burden; analysis with
Accepted 9 July 2010 EPS 2000 and EDIP methodologies were also carried out, in order to compare the different
Available online 21 August 2010 approaches. For the pellet production process, mass and energy flows were measured on an
existing Italian plant, while other data were obtained from the Literature; a comparison
Keywords: between results obtained using only data from Literature and using data from the existing
Life cycle assessment plant was made, showing for the pelleting phase a value of about 23% lower if measured
EcoIndicator 99 data are used. The LCA study showed that agricultural operations account for most of the
Wood pellet environmental impact if evaluated both with EcoIndicator 99 and EPS 2000; EDIP gave
Short Rotation Coppice results that were not very reliable for this chain, due to the high weight given to the infra-
Pellet plant energy consumptions structures and machinery construction. The comparison between data obtained consid-
measurements ering and not considering the infra-structures contribution in the LCA analysis with
Energy return ratio (ERR) EcoIndicator 99 showed a modest contribution of infra-structures on the final score (about
2%). The overall impact evaluated with EcoIndicator 99 is considerably less than the one
caused by natural gas heating. The Energy Return Ratio was finally calculated; a value of 3.25
was found, good if compared to the one for the methane combustion, equal to 6.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Biomass is equally suited for electricity generation, heat-

The European Community undertook an ambitious program
aimed at improving the sustainability of energy use across
Europe. The European Union (EU) and its Member States
encourage the use of renewable sources of energy and the
improving of energy efficiency; in this context, the European
Commission released a proposal for a Directive on the
promotion of the use of renewable energy [1]. It addresses all
sectors of the renewable energy industries, helping them to
reach the Commissions target for 20% of Europes energy
produced by renewable sources by 2020.
ing, cooling and fuels for transport, offering environmental
benefits, but it can also present environmental pressures. In
fact a substantial increase in the use of biomass from agri-
culture, forestry and waste for producing energy could put
additional pressure on farmland and forest biodiversity, as
well as on soil and water resources. Encouraging the devel-
opment of renewable energy from biomass might also coun-
teract other environmental policies and objectives, such as
waste minimization or environmentally oriented farming.
Moreover, it is likely that a fraction of the biomass consumed
in the EU, necessary to satisfy the above-mentioned target,

* Corresponding author. Fax: 39 (0)755853916.

E-mail addresses: fanto@unipg.it (F. Fantozzi), cburatti@unipg.it (C. Buratti).
0961-9534/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.07.011
 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4 1797

will be imported because of lower production costs in third various phases of the process were available in the Litera-
countries. This could entail a risk of even greater pressures on ture [5,7,8]. In addition a comparison between renewable
natural ecosystems and could lead to uncultivated land being and fossil chains through a single ecological index that
brought into cultivation, including land with a high level of includes not only the greenhouse gas balance but also other
stored carbon or otherwise representing high environmental important environmental impacts was carried out. Finally,
value. It is evident that the huge utilization of biomass as unlike the cited LCAs studies, in the present paper the
energy resource needs an appropriate management as a key impact of machinery and infra-structures used in the pellet
action to optimize the use of resource and to reduce the chain and their incidence on the global burden were also
environmental impact associated. considered.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology could be The Energy Return Ratio (ERR) was then calculated, in order
employed to evaluate the environmental and energetic to compare the pellet chain to other conventional energy
sustainability of biomass energy chains, and in particular sources such as natural gas.
their greenhouse gas savings. In fact LCA method proved to be
a valuable tool for documenting and analysing environmental
considerations of product and service systems, that need to be
2. Methodology and input data
part of decision-making process towards sustainability.
In this paper thermal energy generation from wood pellet
The aim of the analysis is to assess the environmental impact,
combustion, obtained from dedicated energy crops (poplar),
on a life cycle horizon, of wood pellet utilization for thermal
was analyzed and compared to natural gas chain used in
energy production. The reference functional unit for the
a domestic boiler. Ecological and energetic balances were
inventory analysis and impact assessment is the thermal
performed, using the life cycle perspective, by means of the
energy generation of 1 MJ. All the energy and mass flows in the
EcoIndicator 99 model (adopting the hierarchical version) [2]
inventory are normalized to the functional unit.
and the Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) method [3] and
Fig. 1 shows the general system boundaries for the scenario
calculating the Energy Return Ratio (ERR). Further analysis
considered in this study. In particular, it includes: wood chips
with EPS 2000 and EDIP methodologies were carried out, in
production from SRC, transportation to the pelleting plant,
order to compare the different approaches.
transformation into pellet, transportation of pellets to the
Wood pellet is a product which is gaining popularity
final user and combustion in a small domestic boiler (22 kW),
around the world as biofuel, while in Italy it is still in the take
off phase, requiring also specific set of rules to classify the
product and its quality. Pellet can be obtained from different
feedstocks, such as residual biomass from agricultural or
industrial processes, forestry pruning and dedicated crops;
they are gaining interest because of the poor availability of
sawdust from forestry residuals, but wood pellet from energy
crops may require more energy in the overall process from
wood to pellet, than the quantity obtained from the combus-
tion of the biofuel.
Therefore it seemed necessary to carry out the LCA of wood
pellet from Short Rotation Coppice (SRC), namely poplar, to
provide an objective procedure to evaluate the energetic and
environmental expenses. The resulting pellet is not high
quality, in compliance to CTI e R04/5 recommendation [4],
because it is characterized by an ash content of 1.5e2.5%,
being the raw material composed by wood chips with an
important percentage of bark.
Mass and energy flows of the overall process were evalu-
ated including SRC cultivation, pelletising, WP combustion,
ash disposal and all required transportation.
There are several studies on the environmental impact
assessment of wood pellet chains [5,6]. However in all cases
biomass used for the pellet production is represented by raw
materials as, for example, residues from the wood lumber
processing or sawdust and chips from wood processing
industries. For the pellet production step, these studies
employ data from Norwegian or Canadian companies; in
this study one of the most important Italian pellet plant was
monitored during the production phase, in order to measure
the energy required in each phase of the process. The major
difficulty of this study, in fact, was to find data about the Fig. 1 e Thermal energy production from wood pellet
pelletising process, because only a few data about the combustion, data referred to the functional unit (1 MJ).
1798 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4

including the disposal of ashes. Energy crops production was water emissions (due to tyre abrasion) and fuel consumptions
considered for a plantation with the following features: were calculated according to [13], which also considers the
construction phase of the vehicle.
e density: 10,000 cuttings ha1; The next process is the storage of raw material at the pel-
e cultivation period: 8 y; letising plant: it was assumed that the movement of raw
e felling frequency: 2 y. materials, inside the storage area, is carried out by a skid-steer
loader (155 kW, load capacity of 5 m3). Fuel consumption was
In particular, the agricultural operations considered during calculated using data privately referred and considering
the eight years of the cultivation cycle are shown in Table 1 [9]. a load/discharge cycle of raw material with the following
characteristics:
2.1. Inventory analysis
e covered distance (there and back): 300 m;
2.1.1. Cultivation e average velocity: 10 km h1;
Poplar cultivation process considered a biomass production e average time for load or discharge: 10 s.
ratio equal to 20 t ha1 y1 (dry basis), with a cultivation cycle
of eight years. For this reason the process was considered for Inventory data for the production of this machinery were
a standard year, in which each agricultural operation was not available and for this reason it was considered a skid-steer
counted a number of times equal to the average value in the loader with 110 kW power [14].
eight years.
For each process the following quantities were considered, 2.1.3. Pelleting
assuming data from Literature: the amount of machinery A few data regarding wood biomass transformation into pellet
needed for a specific operation (operating machines and were available in the Literature [5,7,8], especially when
driving machines), fuel consumption for agricultural referred to the single processes. Therefore an Italian pelleting
machines, amount of fertilizer and pesticide used, atmo- plant was contacted to evaluate mass and energy flows of the
spheric emissions produced by diesel engines, heavy-metal various steps, in order to comply the lack of data. The plant is
emissions from tyre abrasion [10], NH3, N2O and NOx air characterized by a production capacity of 2 t h1. In Table 3 the
emissions from the application of fertilizers, phosphates various sections of the plant are described and the relative
water emissions from the application of fertilizers [11], VOC measured consumptions are reported:
air emissions from the application of pesticides and soil
pollution coming from the pesticides residue in the soil [12]. e pre-treatment of raw material;
Type of machinery, fuel consumption, materials used and e drying (the heat source considered is a natural gas boiler
working times are listed in Table 2. Cuttings are not taken into which supplies 1000 kWhth per tonne of evaporated water,
account because part of the harvested material is used for the dispersed into the atmosphere);
next plantation. e comminution (provided by two milling sections that grind
raw material fine);
2.1.2. Trasportation and storage e pelleting (two pellet mills, powered by diesel engines;
The second phase is represented by the transportation of each of them has a conditioning unit, used to supply corn
wood chips to the pelleting plant, assuming an average starch);
distance of 80 km, with a 28 t lorry, and characterized by a load e cooling (pellets reach 70e80  C and after pressing are
factor (defined as the mass proportion of actual transported cooled to 20  C in a counterflow cooler);
load and maximum load capacity of a vehicle, including the e silage.
empty return trip) equal to 47%. The atmospheric, soil and
Electricity consumption of machinery was evaluated
directly through an acquisition data system (Multiver 3SN
Dossena), which carried out an energy measurement from
analogic inputs, through amperometric pliers, for electric
Table 1 e Agricultural operations for poplar cultivation current, and, directly, for voltage.
(x: once in each year; xx: twice in each year) [9].
Each operation was monitored for a variable period of time,
Agricultural operations Year according to the actual loading of the machine. Energy was
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 then referred to the processed quantity.
The contribution of the construction of the plant main
Ploughing x
structures was eventually taken into account, considering
Harrowing xx
only main materials and discarding energy consumptions for
Surface dressing x x x x
Field dressing x x x x x x x x assembly. Table 4 shows the infra-structures considered, the
Planting x materials and their lifetimes.
Pre-emergency herbicide x x x x The impact of land occupation due to pelleting plant was
Post-emergency herbicide x x x x x x x x considered for an occupied area of 1 ha. In particular, it was
Cultivating xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx considered an occupation (8 years) of land for forestry culti-
Harvesting x x x x
vation (0.0437 m2 y1 MJ1) and a transformation of land from
Tree levelling x
unknown utilization to forestry cultivation (0.00546 m2).
 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4 1799

Table 2 e Data summary for the agricultural operations in poplar cultivation.

Agricultural Machinery Fuel Materials (kg ha1) Time
operations (kg ha1) (h ha1)

Ploughing tractor (80 kW) 2-furrow plough 41.55 e 2.340

Harrowing tractor (80 kW) spring tine harrow 41.2 e 0.790
Surface dressing tractor (51 kW) fertilizer spread 1.79 NPK fertilizer (8e24e24): 500 0.160
Field dressing tractor (51 kW) fertilizer spread 5.03 urea: 218 0.450
Cuttings planting tractor (51 kW) two-row planter 67.28 e 6.050
Pre-emergency herbicide tractor (51 kW) field sprayer 1.79 Metolachlor: 1.7; Linuron: 0.5; 0.160
Pendimethalin: 0.8
Post-emergency herbicide tractor (51 kW) field sprayer 13.53 Pyridate: 1.1 Fluazifop-p-butyl: 0.6 1.210
Cultivating tractor (51 kW) rotary harrow 7.81 e 0.700
Harvesting tractor (130 kW) SRF harvester 109.15 e 1.590
Tree levelling tractor (80 kW) spring tine harrow 240.4 e 13.36

2.1.4. Transportation to the user 2.1.5. Combustion

Pellets, stored in silo, are distributed in bulk by trucks (gross For the pellet combustion process, a 22 kW pellet boiler was
weight 40 t, load factor 46%, distance 80 km), which unload the considered, and mass and energy flows were calculated for
biofuel by blowing the pellets into the storage room of the the manufacturing of the boiler, the pipes for heat distribution
user. Mass and energy flows were determined such as in inside the building, the heat accumulator, the storage silo and
Transportation and storage. the pellet extraction system. Also in this case the energy
necessary for the assembling of the items considered was not
taken into account.
Table 5 shows the assumptions and the total amount of
materials considered in this process, together with the emis-
Table 3 e Characteristics of the examined pellet plant and
measured electricity consumptions (data referred to the sions into the atmosphere produced by pellet combustion
functional unit). [15,16].
Sections Installed Electricity Materials/ The electricity power due to water circulation pump and
Power consumption Energy the screw pellet extractor was assumed of 230 W, that corre-
(kW) (Wh kg1 sponds to a consumption of 0.0027 kWh MJ1.
of pellet)

Pre-treatment 10.27 1.87

2.1.6. Ash disposal
Loading tank 5.5 1 The last process considered is the disposal of ashes, assuming
Vibrating screen 2.2 0.4 an ash content of 2%, which corresponds to 1.05 mg of ashes
Magn. separator 0.37 0.07 per functional unit. Ashes were considered co-products, that
Cup elevator 2.2 0.4 can be used as potassium fertilizer, which can be directly
Drying 100.9 18.76 natural gas: spread on agricultural areas.
Feeding tank 7.5 1.4 0.72 Wh kg1 The method used to attribute environmental burdens to
Rotary drum 10 1.86 of pellet the co-product was the displacement method, in which to the
Exhaust fan 75 14 primary product is assigned the total environmental burden,
Star valve 2.2 0.4
minus credits due to the environmental burdens avoided as
Cup elevator 2.2 0.4
Screw conveyor 4 0.7
a result of co-product displacement of alternative products
elsewhere.
Comminution 202 37.71
Dismantling and recycling of machinery and infra-struc-
2 screw extract. 3.6 0.67
tures were not considered throughout the study.
2 feed screws 4.4 0.82
2 hammermills 150 28
2 volum. pumps 44 8.22
2.2. Impact assessment
Pelletisation 16 2.99 diesel: 9.9 g kg1
2 feed hoppers 4.4 0.82 of pellet The Impact Assessment was evaluated considering three
2 conditioners 8 1.5 corn starch:
methodologies: EcoIndicator 99, EPS 2000 and EDIP.
2 presses e e 10 g kg1
2 screw conveyor 3.6 0.67 of pellet
EcoIndicator 99 is a damage-oriented approach, based on the
weight given to damages by the different Impact Categories.
Cooling 4.8 0.9
The uncertainty of EcoIndicator 99 is represented by the three
Screw extractor 1.8 0.34
different versions in considering the potential damage due to
Cooler 3 0.56
a particular substance (the individualist perspective has
Silage 2.95 0.6
a short-term horizon and scarce interest in low-probability
Vibrating screen 0.75 0.15
impacts, the hierarchic one balances short and long-term
Cup elevator 2.2 0.45
horizons and has a consensus-based approach to risk, the
1800 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4

Table 4 e Characteristics and lifetimes of the pellet plant infra-structures, considered in the LCA analysis.
Sections Infra-structures type Materials Lifetime
(y)

Pre-treatments vibrating screen aluminium. 107.5 kg 50

steel low-alloyed: 107.5 kg
cup elevator, magnetic separator steel low-alloyed: 700 kg 50
Drying rotary drum aluminium wrought alloyed: 640 kg 10
aluminium sheet rolling: 640 kg
exhaust fan aluminium: 1000 kg 50
steel low-alloyed: 1000 kg
natural gas boiler refractory: 70 kg 20
cast iron: 4200 kg
chromium steel: 230 kg
steel low-alloyed: 190 kg
rock wool: 40 kg
cup elevator, screw conveyor steel low-alloyed: 700 kg 50
Comminution 2 hammermills reinforced steel: 2500 kg 10
steel sheet rolling: 2500 kg
2 feed screws, 2 screw extractor Steel low-alloyed: 700 kg 50
Pelleting 2 presses steel low-alloyed: 4000 kg 10
sheet rolling: 4000 kg
2 feed hoppers, 2 screw conveyor steel low-alloyed: 700 kg 50
Cooling cooler steel low-alloyed: 200 kg 15
screw extractor steel low-alloyed: 210 kg 50
Silage vibrating screen aluminium: 107.5 kg 50
steel low-alloyed: 107.5 kg
silo (100 m3) glass fibre: 3800 kg 25
cast iron: 500 kg
reinforcing steel: 500 kg
cup elevator steel low-alloyed: 350 kg 50

egalitarian one has a long-term horizon and relies heavily on
the precautionary principle).
EPS 2000 evaluates impacts in order to obtain a parameter
based on WTP (Willingness To Pay), giving an economic value to
the damage. It includes the characterization and weighting
phases, but no normalization and in particular it examines the
effects of pollutants on Human Health.
EDIP finally has a mid-point approach, which applies
weighting factors on the basis of the environmental
targets fixed by the Danish Government or by the Interna-
tional Protocols. Normalization is obtained by dividing the
characterization values (referred to the world for the global
damages and to Denmark for the local ones) for the per person
damage related to the category and to year 1990; the evalua-
tion is made by multiplying the normalized damage for the
ratio between the damage per person related to the category
and to 1990 and the ones established for the year 2000.
3. Results and discussion
LCA analysis was carried out considering the following
scenarios:

a) data from pelleting plant, analysis with EcoIndicator 99,

Table 5 e Input data for pellet combustion phase [15,16]. EPS 2000 and EDIP;
Materials Quantity Category Quantity b) LCA analysis with EcoIndicator 99 with data from pelleting
plant and from Literature;
Rock wool 5 kg usage 1600 h y1
c) LCA analysis with EcoIndicator 99 considering and not
Cast iron 12 kg efficiency 82%
considering machinery and infra-structures contribution
Copper 5.6 kg boiler lifetime 20 y
Steel low alloyed 500 kg pellet cons. 8.8 t y1 in the final score;
Polyethylene 1.2 kg silo supplies 2 y1 d) LCA analysis with EcoIndicator 99 for heating from the SRF
Concrete 3.4 m3 silo volume 6.8 m3 pellet chain and from natural gas combustion.
Substance mg MJ1 of thermal energy
CO 146.34 Results are shown in the following.
TOC 3.66
CH4 0.67 a) Comparison between EcoIndicator 99, EPS 2000 and EDIP
PAH 0.07 EcoIndicator 99
Particulate 19.51
NOx 85.37
Table 6 shows the global eco-score (3.19 mPt) and the eco-
NMVOC 0.49
scores for each damage category. It can be noted that the
 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4 1801

Table 6 e Results for the damage categories of pellet chain (EcoIndicator 99).
Damage Biomass Wood chip Pellet transport Wood pelleting Pellet combustion TOTAL
category cultivation (mPt) transport (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt)

Human health 0.436 0.063 0.018 0.400 0.524 1.440

Ecosyst. quality 0.519 0.013 0.005 0.188 0.051 0.776
Resources 0.546 0.100 0.044 0.259 0.020 0.970
TOTAL 1.500 0.176 0.067 0.847 0.594 3.190

environmental impact on Human Health is much more
important than the impact on Ecosystem Quality and
Resources. Moreover, the more relevant impact is the one
related to Respiratory Inorganics and Fossil Fuels (Table 7)
due, respectively, to: particulate and nitrogen oxides emis-
sions from pellet boiler and pellet presses; diesel consump-
tion, in tractors and pellet presses; natural gas consumption in
the boiler and for nitrogen fertilizers production.
The contribution of pellet combustion to the Fossil Fuels
category is negative, because ashes were considered as avoi-
ded product and therefore the environmental impact of
chemical potassium fertilizer production is subtracted from
the global burden associated with the wood pellet.
With reference to the distribution of the eco-score among
the different macro-processes, it can be observed that the
environmental impact is mainly due to biomass cultivation
(47% of the total impact) and wood pelleting (26.6%). In
particular, among agricultural processes (Fig. 2), the impact
deriving from land use is very remarkable (25%), while among
the other processes the main contributions are surface
dressing (37.5% of the energy crops production impact) and
field dressing (20.8%), because of fossil fuels consumption for
fertilizer production and nitrogen oxides emissions due to the
urea application. When considering the transformation of
wood into pellet, the most important contribution is pelleting
(61.2% of the overall impact), mainly due to diesel and corn
starch consumption.
EPS 2000
The single score value of EPS 2000 was 26.4 mPt (Table 8),
due especially to the damage category Abiotic Resources and
to the related Impact category Resources Depletion (15.6 mPt).
This is especially due to the poplar cultivation and to the pellet
combustion, because of the high weight given to the metals
used in the machinery production (nickel). A high score
(8.76 mPt) is also related to Life Expectancy due to the pellet
combustion, and in particular to the high weight of the
atmospheric emission of polycyclic aromatic compounds. If
considering the macro-processes, the higher contributions to
the single score are due to pellet combustion (44.5%) and to
poplar cultivation (30.3%), especially for minerals and metals
in the fertilizers production. Furthermore, if machinery and
infra-structures are excluded from the evaluation of the single
score, a value of 15.7 mPt is obtained (40.5%).
EDIP
Results obtained by EDIP (Table 9) are not very reliable, due
to the high weight given to the machinery and the infra-
structures construction; values of 2.31 mPt and 0.41 mPt were
found, because of the high weight given to the atmospheric
emissions of iron in the steel production cycle. Therefore the
most important Impact Category is Soil Human Toxicity (87.1%),
while the macro-processes with the higher environmental
impact are the transformation of chips into pellet (35.9%) and
the pellet combustion (39.3%).
b) Comparison of analysis with data from existing plant and
from Literature
The environmental global impacts of the pelleting process
obtained through data measured at the Italian pellet plant and
through data reported in [5] were both evaluated with

Table 7 e Results for the impact categories for pellet chain (EcoIndicator 99).
Impact Biomass Wood chip Pellet transport Wood pelleting Pellet combustion TOTAL
category cultivation (mPt) transport (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt)

Carcinogens 130.0 2.8 1.5 19.0 18.0 171.3

Resp. organics 0.15 0.07 0.02 0.35 0.12 0.7
Resp. inorganics 270.0 54.0 14.0 360.0 500.0 1198.0
Climate change 35.0 6.3 2.6 15.0 5.5 64.4
Radiation 0.40 0.02 0.01 1.30 0.75 2.5
Ozone layer 0.0190 0.0044 0.0020 0.0110 0.0003 0.0367
Ecotoxicity 28.0 3.6 1.7 17.0 11.0 61.3
Acidif/Eutroph. 110.0 8.5 2.4 50.0 39.0 209.9
Land use 380.00 0.93 0.40 120.00 0.77 502.1
Minerals 12.00 0.65 0.35 9.00 20.00 42.0
Fossil fuels 540.0 100.0 44.0 250.0 0.82 933.2
TOTAL 1505.57 176.87 66.98 841.66 594.32 3185.40
1802 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4

Fig. 2 e Contributions of the agricultural operations to the environmental impact of the energy crops production
(EcoIndicator 99).

EcoIndicator 99 and compared. Densification process
described in [5] consists of three unit operations: drying, size
reduction and pelleting; in the first step, wet sawdust is dried
in a rotary drier, using natural gas as fuel. In this process the
inputs are electricity, natural gas and diesel, while the outputs
are air pollutants (like CO2, CO, NOx, SOx, CH4 and VOC).
Results showed that the single score for the process with data
from the pelleting plant was 0.85 mPt while, assuming data
reported in [5], it was obtained a value of 1.05 mPt. The envi-
ronmental burden of the Literature process was mostly due to
the natural gas consumption and the category Fossil Fuels
represents about 83% of the overall impact. On the other hand,
the value of the real pelleting process was principally due to
the Respiratory Inorganics (43%, caused by nitrogen oxides
and particulate emissions) and Fossil Fuels (29.5%) categories.
c) Influence of infra-structures contribution to the final score
The environmental burden of the chain, excluding the
impact due to machinery and infra-structures used in all
processes, was also evaluated with EcoIndicator 99. It was
obtained a value of the single score equal to 3.13 mPt (3.19 mPt
was the value obtained considering machinery and infra-
structures), showing that their incidence on the global impact
was about 2%, mainly caused by machinery employed in the
pelleting process.
d) Comparison with the heating from natural gas chain
The comparison with the environmental impact of heat
obtained from natural gas combustion was carried out
assuming the following processes referring to EcoInvent
library [17]:
e extraction and production of gas onshore and offshore
from Germany, Algeria, Netherlands and Russia;
e transportation to Italy through pipelines;
e distribution to consumers through local pipe networks;
e combustion in a boiler (<100 kW).
Results from EcoIndicator 99 show that heat produced
from natural gas has a higher impact (6.74 mPt) than heat
produced from wood pellet (3.19 mPt), mainly because of fossil
resources depletion (Fig. 3).
The single score for the methane chain with EPS 2000 is
37.5 mPt, especially due to the Impact Category Resources
Depletion; it is about 30% higher than the bio-energy chain.
The comparison with the methane chain carried out with
EDIP showed for the bio-energy chain a single score higher
than for the fossil one (2.31 mPt vs. 0.87 mPt).
A comparison was finally carried out considering the
energy efficiency, in terms of Energy Return Ratio (ERR),
defined as the ratio of total usable energy produced from the
process analyzed to total energy consumed in operating the
process itself.
Results show that ERR index was equal to 6 for natural gas
chain, while the value for biomass chain was 3.25, in any case

Table 8 e Results for the damage categories for pellet chain (EPS 2000).
Damage Biomass Wood chip Pellet transport Wood pelleting Pellet combustion TOTAL
category cultivation (mPt) transport (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt)

Human Health 1800.00 340.00 1800.00 110.00 6700.00 10750.00

Ecosystem Produciton 40.00 2.70 8.50 1.10 4.20 56.50
Capacity
Abiotic Stock Resources 6200.00 410.00 3800.00 200.00 5100.00 15710.00
Biodiversity 16.00 2.40 19.00 0.98 2.80 41.18
TOTAL 7976.00 749.70 5610.50 309.88 11798.60 26444.68
 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4 1803

Table 9 e Results for the impact categories for pellet chain (EDIP).
Impact category Biomass Wood chip Pellet transport Wood pelleting Pellet combustion TOTAL
cultivation (mPt) transport (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt) (mPt)

Global Warming 1.30 0.23 0.57 0.10 0.22 2.42

Ozone Depletion 0.08 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.00 0.14
Acidification 2.00 0.16 0.90 0.05 0.67 3.78
Eutrophication 2.40 0.10 0.77 0.03 0.49 3.79
Photochemical Smog 0.04 0.01 0.08 0.00 0.28 0.42
Ecotoxicity water chronic 44.00 9.70 35.00 4.40 27.00 120.10
Ecotoxicity water acute 36.00 7.90 21.00 3.60 6.60 75.10
Ecotoxicity soil chronic 9.10 0.55 8.80 0.26 6.10 24.81
Human toxicity air 0.99 0.27 2.10 0.11 2.00 5.47
Human toxicity water 23.00 2.30 11.00 1.10 26.00 63.40
Human toxicity soil 310.00 70.00 750.00 34.00 840.00 2004.00
Bulk Waste e e e e e e
Hazardous Waste e e e e e e
Radioactive Waste e e e e e e
Slags/Ashes e e e e e e
TOTAL 428.91 91.24 830.26 43.65 909.36 2303.42

Fig. 3 e Comparison between environmental impact of heat production from wood pellet and natural gas (values in mPt)
(EcoIndicator 99).

higher than the break even point (equal to 1). The main
processes which contribute to energy consumption are poplar
cultivation (42.1% of the total energy requested) and wood
pelleting (37.9%).
4. Conclusions
The environmental impact assessments of a bio-energy chain
through LCA methodology and adopting EcoIndicator 99
method for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment step was
carried out. EcoIndicator 99 is in fact a well-documented and
regularly applied impact assessment method. Nevertheless
a calculation with EPS 2000 and EDIP was also carried out, in
order to consider the different approaches.
The LCA study showed that agricultural operations
account for most of the environmental impact, when evalu-
ated with both EcoIndicator 99 and EPS 2000, even if for
EcoIndicator 99 a higher Impact is related to Human Health
while for EPS 2000 it is related to Resources Consumption; EDIP
gave not very reliable results for this chain, due to the high
weight given to the infra-structure and machinery
construction.
For the pellet production process, mass and energy flows
were measured on an existing Italian pelleting plant, while
other data were obtained from the Literature; a comparison
1804 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 3 4 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 1 7 9 6 e1 8 0 4
between results obtained using only data from the Literature
and using data from the existing plant was made, showing
a lower value of the score related to the pelleting phase if
calculated with data measured on an Italian plant (23%).
A further comparison was made between data obtained
with EcoIndicator 99 with and without considering the
contribution of machinery and infra-structures in the LCA
analysis; results showed a modest contribution of infra-
structures on the final score (about 2%).
A final comparison to heat produced from natural gas
shows a 53% lower impact for wood pellets with EcoIndicator
99, a 30% lower impact with EPS 2000 and a 62% higher value
with EDIP. Comparisons between the two chains were also
conducted in terms of energy efficiency, calculating the ERR
index. An important result was obtained, because the biomass
chain is characterized by a value of 3.25, while for the natural
gas chain ERR is equal to 6. Therefore the biomass chain has
a favourable energy balance, because its ERR index is clearly
above of breakpoint, equal to 1.
Acknowledgments
Authors wish to thank Eng. Marco Barbanera, PhD for his
contribution in the calculation activity.
Nomenclature
ERR energy return ratio
LCA life cycle assessment
mPt milliPoint
NMVOC non-methane volatile organic compounds
PAH polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
SRC short rotation coppice
TOC Total Organic Carbon
VOC volatile organic compounds
mPt microPoint
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